Monkey Business: DNC Covering Up Racist Slur Uttered at Convention

The Democratic National Committee is trying to cover up an incident at the party’s National Convention in which a Puerto Rican member of the New Progressive Party called a politician of African descent a “monkey” at a DNC luncheon.

Melissa Mark-Viverito, A New York City Council Member representing NYC’s 8th District, was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. After the convention, she reportedthe incident from the first day of the DNC, which Democrats billed as “the most inclusive convention of all time.”

Mark-Viverito, who is also of Puerto Rican descent, was asked to speak to the 60 delegates from Puerto Rico, and she told Redding News Review she wanted Soto to issue an apology.

“It’s really sad,” she said. “It’s not something we should tolerate so I felt compelled to talk about it.”

Journalists at the lunch also heard and tweeted about the slur, and Mark-Viverito said if “Soto cannot adhere to the principles of our party, she should not have a place at the convention.” Soto was not kicked out of the convention and Democrats have avoided all requests for comment on the matter.

At the Republican National Convention, delegates who were caught throwing nuts at a black camerawoman they called an animal were ejected from the convention, but Democrats did punish their racist delegate in a similar manner.

“As a Puerto Rican elected official in Nueva York, I am repeatedly shocked and disgusted each time another one of these stories breaks, and again exposes the deep-seated racism that abounds in Puerto Rican political and social discourse,” Mark-Viverito wrote. “On each of these occasions, I have felt compelled to denounce these statements publicly as a way of shaming some sense into our public leaders.”